At KBIS 2018 Mark Bickerstaffe, our director of New Product Development, presented the latest color, materials, and finishes trends. One of them, maybe the most eye-catching is ‘Translucent Tints’. Light-infused materials, textures, glass and other transparent materials that filter light in a unique way and speak to our souls.Erwin Hauer was a sculptor who created just such materials and surfaces. After a short illness, he passed away in December 2017 in Bethany, Connecticut, USA, just shortly before his latest book ‘Still Facing Infinity’ was published. Hauer, an Austrian-born visual artist who arrived in the United States after having served in World War II, impressed not only his professors and fellow-students, but his work caught the eye of Norman Carlberg with whom he worked for a time. He became a professor at Yale University School of Art where he taught for 30 years. At the same time, he continued to develop installations of modular constructivism or light-infused architectural screens, walls, and room dividers.What was minimalism in the 1950 and 1960 transformed into mathematical expressiveness in modern times. Together with his former student Enrique Rosado who specializes in digitalization and commercial production, the 91-year old Hauer designed and created molds in concrete, gypsum, acrylic resin by combining his sculptural talent and modern technology.The creator of this innovative type of architecture and engineering will leave a void in the art, architecture, and design community.His work will live on as testaments of ingeniously created voids within space and time-space continuums, in the two books he published and the exhibitions that continue to be curated. Currently, some sculptures can be seen at The New Sculpture Mile Exhibition in New London, Connecticut, USA.Some of Hauer’s 60 years of work is displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Museum of the National Academy of Design. Earlier works include Church Enberg in Vienna, Austria, the city where he was born.

]]>https://kohler.design/rip-erwin-hauer-interior-void-modulated/feed/0Iwan Baan, Architecture Photographerhttps://kohler.design/iwan-baan-architecture-photographer/
https://kohler.design/iwan-baan-architecture-photographer/#commentsFri, 05 Jan 2018 01:00:01 +0000http://kohler.design/?p=10895Iwan Baan is the world’s foremost architecture photographer. It’s a subjective title, but many architects feel they must have their building shot by him. That means a rigorous work schedule around the world, so it’s [Read more…]

Iwan Baan is the world’s foremost architecture photographer. It’s a subjective title, but many architects feel they must have their building shot by him. That means a rigorous work schedule around the world, so it’s a rare day to be able to catch up with him at home in the Netherlands.

Iwan Baan’s photos are unusual in the realm of architecture photography, where shots are traditionally sterile and empty, presenting the image of the building or an interior as a large scale still-life.

Instead, he is much more interested in context – the foreground and background, the streets surrounding the building and most importantly people either loitering, walking past or actively interacting with the building. And where many photographers would photoshop out a stray tree or signpost from a composition, Iwan Baan keeps them in:

“Life is messy! For me it’s about telling the story of a place, it’s not about when the building is finally finished and everything is swept way and that one moment in time when everything is perfect.”

“I use Canon digital SLRs and carry a number of lenses with me; I work lightweight and handheld. Although it’s true: The best camera is the camera you have with you.”

“I start with a shortlist from the architect telling me which details and angles they want. I then have a first impression of a place: The people, the culture, the surroundings of each building. It’s about being intuitive, just spending time, sometimes a couple of days with the building, looking at the light, the weather. There are so many variables that are also out of my control and these unplanned things are what I capture and make part of the story.”

Iwan Baan didn’t study architecture, instead, he was at art school studying photography and trying to find a niche he was happy in.
“It was by accident that eleven years ago I met Rem Koolhaas and we clicked. I loved the context of how he was building, especially in Beijing with the CCTV tower and the Olympic projects. It was a perfect way of combining my love of documentary photography with taking architecture photos.”

New York after Hurricane Sandy, USA, 2012

“I was in New York for another project for Herzog & de Meuron, which had been delayed because of Hurricane Sandy and I was in my hotel room when all the lights went out. You think it’ll only be for a few minutes, but it went on and on. It was eerie, the city without electricity, everything grinding to a halt. It was such a strange and unique moment, and I thought ‘how can I represent this?’
I realized I needed to get into the air. An aerial photo would be amazing, but none the helicopter pilots I knew in NY could get to an airport, there was no gasoline, no electricity… But luckily I had once previously organized a pilot in Long Island, which wasn’t so affected, and he was the only one who was able to fly. I drove out all the way there and then we flew back over Manhattan in a helicopter, the doors open while I shot the city. You can see the edge of the lights and where the city was dark. It became the cover photo for New York magazine, and went around the world.”

Makako Floating School, Lagos, Nigeria, [2013]

“I prefer to take my aerial photos with a helicopter but it’s not always possible, so this was taken with a large bespoke drone that was built for me to hold a full DSLR camera. I’m standing on the small island behind the school [with the blue roof].
This is a project from a good friend of mine, Kunlé Adeyemi, who I met 12 years ago when I started working with Rem Koolhaas and he was working there too. He then started his own office and this was one of his first projects. Kunlé proposed this prototype school for the community and used local carpenters to build it.
He saw it as a way to do something for the city, and for the community of Makako, which is situated on the water’s edge, a shallow seabed between two peninsulas.
The property prices in Lagos have gone up incredibly so people started to move into the water. It’s shallow so you can build on stilts and it’s become this community of 150,000 people.”

Heydar Aliyev Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan [2011-2013]

“I’ve been a number of times to Baku as I’m working on a book with Harvard University on its urban development. It’s a very interesting city; there have been three big oil booms over the course of the last century and at the moment there’s another so you get high profile projects such as Zaha Hadid’s theater and museum.
You can see the city’s incredible transformation at the moment. On the right, you see the way that the old city is being recladded in limestone to transform it from the Soviet era architecture. And then in the background, this hovering amorphous structure.
On the other photo, if the people weren’t there, it would be such an abstract picture. The construction workers sitting there give it scale and without them, you couldn’t tell where the building ends and where the pavement and the city starts.”

Tower Studio, Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada [2013]

“This is a very special place for me; almost the most eastern tip of North America, Fogo was a small fisherman’s island, but they left in the 1970s after the fishing quotas were installed.
Then a locally-born businesswoman, Zita Cobb, moved back from the mainland to kickstart a new island community – one making local design objects like furniture. She’s made it into a very small scale, high-end tourism destination. She invited architect Todd Saunders, a Newfoundland-born architect, to design a small hotel plus resident studios for visiting artists, and helped fund the local economy to foster the growing community there.
This photo is the Tower Studio, and I’m standing on the top floor looking down on the artist Kate Newby. She was inspired by the landscape – you can see how the texture and colors of the landscape outside the window match the art she’s working with on the floor.”

Torre David, Caracas, Venezuela [2011]

“There’s a huge percentage of the city who live in slums, so any vacant plot in Caracas is taken. This building, which was to be the tallest tower in the city, was started in the early 80s as the headquarters of a bank but then the economy crashed and it was left unfinished, an empty concrete shell. But people decided to move in: There are 45 stories without elevators or running water and yet 3,000 people live in this vertical community – from the shops to the hairdressers – and you see here a gym on the 28th floor. I’ve been around five times documenting how people created homes in this unimaginable place, building an incredible community by themselves. It’s eye-opening to see how people can build something out of nothing under very tough conditions.”

All-rounder and Kohler Kitchen & Bath marketing communications director Peter Oesch has been with Kohler Company since 2008. In his day-to-day life between Bangkok (Thailand), Shanghai (China), and Singapore he takes care of brand campaigns. Peter has been working in APAC for 27 years and worked in six countries.

To learn more about Peter’s inspirations, follow him on his journey:

Tribal art
“Since I was a little boy, I had an African mask staring down at me from the wall where my parents have affixed it. It was an impressive one, slightly scary and mysterious. Many years later, I rediscovered and deepened the fascination with tribal, primitive art that stems from aboriginal/indigenous people in various parts of the world. These tribes seem much closer to nature than we are today and they have a wealth of knowledge and respect for nature. In particular, I collect (mostly) wooden masks from various parts of the world.

Hudoq* mask from the Dayak tribe in Borneo, Malaysian side.

It’s interesting to note that most of these masks are used for certain rituals related to harvest or ancestor worship but also to chase away bad spirits. I have masks from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Myanmar, Mexico, Costa Rica, Kenya, Togo, South Africa, Switzerland, and Korea.”

Architecture
“Swiss architect Peter Zumthor I find interesting. I like his minimalist, almost brutal, architectural style expressed in the thermal bath in Vals intriguing.”

Impression from the Thermal Bath, ValsImpression from the Thermal Bath, Vals

Tropical houses
“I have always preferred warm climates over cold ones. I guess I like the idea that one can be outdoors all year long without being cold (which is the case in most countries of the northern hemisphere). Topical houses I find interesting because they are often embedded and surrounded by nature. I would prefer a clean and non-intrusive style of house that blends into the environment.”

Nature is almost part of the living room.

Packaging Design
“While I am generally into ‘design’, I very much like packaging design of consumer products. I enjoy seeing the creativity and ideas that go into packaging. I prefer natural, recyclable materials in general. The actual product container and the graphic design of the label or packaging need to be one unit, match and create the desire to buy the product.”

Health drink with attractive, ‘retro’ glass bottle and matching label sold in the US. Not to mention that it tastes amazing.

Textures, materials
“Patterns and textures, both man-made and natural are of interest to me. I like both the geometry or the wild chaos as opposites.”

*Hudoq is a thanksgivingfestival of many of sub-groups of the Dayak ethnic group of East Kalimantan province, Indonesia. According to the traditional beliefs of the Bahau, Busang, Modang, Ao’heng, and Penihing people, hudoqs are thirteen crop-destroying pests, including rats, lions, and crows. In the festival, the Hudoqs are symbolized by dancers who wear masks representing pests and jackets made of areca palm or banana tree bark. The dance is finished when two human hudoqs come out and chase the pest hudoqs. The dance duration is 1–5 hours. It is arranged from village to village after people dibble the land to grow dry-field rice paddies in September to October every year. They pray so that their fields will grow abundantly.

]]>https://kohler.design/peter-oesch-director-marcoms-at-kohler-kb/feed/0RIP Albert C. Ledner – modernist architecthttps://kohler.design/rip-albert-c-ledner-modernist-architect/
https://kohler.design/rip-albert-c-ledner-modernist-architect/#respondSun, 26 Nov 2017 02:00:05 +0000http://kohler.design/?p=9934American modernist architect Albert C. Ledner died at age 93 in November 2017 in the USA. His family had just recently completed and shown a documentary about his life: “Designing Life: The Modernist Architecture of [Read more…]

American modernist architect Albert C. Ledner died at age 93 in November 2017 in the USA. His family had just recently completed and shown a documentary about his life: “Designing Life: The Modernist Architecture of Albert C. Ledner”.Albert Ledner who had worked until recently was best known for his unusual designs and use of materials. He had a strong sense of aesthetics and geometry that can be seen in the over 40 projects that he constructed – predominantely in New Orleans where he had lived most of his life.

maritime-hotel-albert-ledner-dezeen-2364-architecture-new-york-city

However, probably his best-known work are buildings that were commissioned in Manhattan, New York, by the National Maritime Union. They stand out with their windows that remind of ships’ portholes and America’s naval past.

Albert Ledner had studied at Tulane School of Architecture in the 40s, but had to interrupt his pursuit of architectural studies due to WWII when he served in Arizona. During that time, he had the chance to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home in Taliesin West, Arizona.
Upon graduating in 1948, he drove to Wisconsin to join Wright as an apprentice in his summer estate near Spring Green. Ledner didn’t stay there until he was completely awestruck by Wright and his work, although a strong influence is undeniable. He went there “to find freedom in the lessons” according to Barry Bergdoll, professor of art history and archeology at Columbia University and a curator of the Museum of Modern Art.

Throughout his working life, Albert Ledner stayed independent and didn’t limit himself to a single style. His buildings and structures are easily recognizable due to their odd shapes, forms, and angles.

Source: some photos are courtesy of New York Times, dezeen, and Designing Life: the modernist architecture of Albert C. Ledner.

Ravi Varanasi is our General Manager – Business Development: Sustainability based in Chennai, India.

He delivers next-generation user experiences, creates new growth opportunities for both Indian and International emerging markets in Sustainability and Circular Economy and develops and executes CSR and Stewardship programs.

Ravi says about himself: “I am an impatient optimist! Otherwise a water and energy professional. I am a huge fan of biomimicry and spend my spare time nowadays learning all about nature and how we can mimic it to make our planet more hospitable than hostile for our future generations.

Each of us has a role to play in sustainable and gracious living for all. Given where we are in this time with human-induced climate change, I believe our natural capital needs to be looked at as an attractive if not imperative investment destination by all of humankind.”

He is very interested in working in areas around conservation of natural resources, their rights and environmental sustainability. Biodiversity is what evolution is all about and we are better at learning from each other and leaning on each other than looting the other.

Food, forest, and fauna are the three pillars on which the world survives on (if not thrives on). The planet before the industrial revolution had clean air and water and as we adopted more technology and applied science to make our lives more comfortable and convenient, we seemed to have forgotten all branches of biology.

Microbiology was limited to medicine. Botany and zoology were largely limited to the classification and the properties and vital phenomena of plant and animals. Agriculture was largely limited to productivity gains, nowhere did anyone look at the mycelium of the interactions between these.

Ravi believes: “It is about time that people and companies invested in researching these natural neural networks which mimic the human brain to produce the much desirable outcomes for our civilization.”

The man who built the National Sports Complex in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, forever closed his eyes in September 2017. At 91, architect and urban planner Vann Molyvann died peacefully in his home near Siem Reap.
He and his work were largely influential for the development of Cambodia and new Cambodian architecture. Born in 1926, in Kampot province in Southern Cambodia during a time that the country was still under the protectorate of France, he received a scholarship to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and left the country in 1946.
After his studies that were strongly influenced by modernist architecture and works of Le Corbusier, Vann Molyvann returned to Phnom Penh in 1956. At the time, no one knew what an architect was, so it wasn’t easy for him to find the first job. It was a small government contract which caught the eye of King Sihanouk. Thereafter, the King commissioned Vann Molyvann to build the Independence Monument that remains a landmark in Cambodia to this day.
Over the next decade or so Vann Molyvann, as the state architect and the father of new Khmer architecture, designed a plethora of buildings to help the development of Cambodia. His style combined traditional and ancient Khmer architecture with modernist ideas and materials. Among the body of work are universities, factories, ministries, theatres, and, of course, the famous sports complex.
Today it is still the largest building structure in all of Cambodia, however, the new developments around it, close in and crowd this important building of late 20th-century modernism in Asia. It is so significant that it was added to the World Monument Fund in 2006.
After the coup d’état, in 1971, Vann Molyvann fled with his family to Switzerland where he worked for the United Nations Human Settlement Program for ten years. His work consisted of building affordable housing for the less fortunate and the displaced.
Upon his return to Cambodia in 1991, he headed the Apsara Authority that is responsible for the restoration of Angkor Wat and the temples in Siem Reap region and their management. But he did much more. He continued to be a thought leader and a pioneer in the development of his country.
While it was difficult for Vann Molyvann to find work as an architect probably due to adverse government sentiments and the fact that Cambodian people tried to forget their past, his buildings continued to be a testament to the new, dynamic Cambodia that he had envisioned already before the dark period of war.He also continued his studies and published a number of books as well as appeared in documentaries and was interviewed frequently. In later years, he criticized the rapid and somewhat unplanned development of the country. Consequences of this erratic development were also damages and destructions of some of Vann Molyvann’s iconic buildings.
In 1994, the National Theatre which served as a place of gathering the dispersed Cambodian artists (from the past) and a revival of traditional arts and culture caught fire and was subsequently destroyed. In 2008, the Council of Ministers was torn down to make room for a new Chinese architectural style inspired building.
But luckily, a lot of his work – a testament to his love for Cambodia – remains intact and was documented. His contribution to the restructure of Cambodia is invaluable and an inspiration for generations to come.
Rest in peace, Vann Molyvann.

]]>https://kohler.design/rip-vann-molyvann-cambodia-architect/feed/0Lun Cheak Tan – Director Design Studio K&B Asia Pacifichttps://kohler.design/lun-cheak-tan-director-design-studio-kb-asia-pacific/
https://kohler.design/lun-cheak-tan-director-design-studio-kb-asia-pacific/#respondMon, 09 Oct 2017 09:33:16 +0000http://kohler.design/?p=8851Lun is our Director of the Design Studio Kohler K&B Asia Pacific in Shanghai, China. Born in the United Kingdom, he spent most of his life in Singapore and is currently based in Shanghai. His [Read more…]

Lun is our Director of the Design Studio Kohler K&B Asia Pacific in Shanghai, China. Born in the United Kingdom, he spent most of his life in Singapore and is currently based in Shanghai. His focus is on design strategy, product design and new product development. He is a frequent speaker at our events. Recently he gave presentations at the Pecha Kucha Singapore, Kohler Design Escape in Bangkok and the Design Forum in Taipei.Before joining Kohler Company, Lun worked in an international computer company. He is also the co-founder of a Singaporean collective called ‘Little Thoughts Group’ where designers from all discipline gather to explore and challenge the cultural status-quo of Singapore through product design.As a designer, Lun has won multiple product design and art awards; namely, for the graphic novel ‘01321’, he received the Digital Gold Art Award in the inaugural Comgraph Asia Pacific Digital Art & Animation Competition.Outside of his day-to-day work, he draws on his iPad with heavy inspiration from science fiction (cyberpunk), monster movies, and electronic music.

He is the co-founder of United Filmakers Organization and executive director of Applause Pictures.In all of his work, art and design he aims for a high artistic standard and an international spirit. The work is adapted to different environments and contains something personal without losing sight of the commercial aspect of it. Furthermore, he interprets social concerns of average Chinese citizens beautifully and critically. In his projects, he is looking for uncertainty and to do something that has not been done before to keep an edge and freshness for himself and the spectator.

]]>https://kohler.design/peter-chan-international-hong-kongese/feed/0Tony Chi – I’m a business designerhttps://kohler.design/tony-chi-im-a-business-designer/
https://kohler.design/tony-chi-im-a-business-designer/#respondMon, 04 Sep 2017 02:30:31 +0000http://kohler.design/?p=7805Tony Chi is one of the most celebrated interior designers working today. His designs can be found around the world in the hospitality industry, where his dictatorial clarity of thought is much in demand. He [Read more…]

Tony Chi is one of the most celebrated interior designers working today. His designs can be found around the world in the hospitality industry, where his dictatorial clarity of thought is much in demand. He is absolutely not interested in being the type of designer whose role is just to fill a room with furniture. His holistic approach and commitment to process take in much wider concerns from the hotel’s demographic neighborhood to what time and angle the sun will touch a space during the day.A roll call of his past work includes Park Hyatt Shanghai, Park Hyatt Washington DC and Andaz Tokyo, with upcoming projects including Ritz Carlton Mumbai and Rosewoods in Hong Kong and Carlyle New York.

We went to his Manhattan studio to speak to him about the creative and business process of starting a new project.“Our studio receives one Request For Proposal (RFP) a day, and while it is truly an honor to have such recognition, the volume is overwhelming. You simply can’t expect to commit to every single one. Instead, I’ve always focused to have our studio reach out directly to the owners: To share a vision, start a dialogue and exchange thoughts.
I only work on one project at a time in one city. This is so I can concentrate geographically in one place. I travel out of New York 200 days a year, meaning when I’m in a city working on a project, it has my full attention.”

Andaz Tokyo

“I’ve spent years slowing down my process. I see time as a valued commodity because I understand how each moment, hour and day count. People tell me it takes a long time for me to create a project or give the deliverables. I do it on purpose! People say, ‘This other design firm can do it in eight months and you want 15 months?’ Yes, I can do it in eight months, our studio is just as capable, but I refuse to. If they want me, I’ll tell them this is how long it’ll take. If you don’t care about the process why should I care about your project?”

“Every decision on a new potential project starts with this in mind. It’s never a pure business decision, it’s about who do you want to work with and co-exist with. The process starts with this. Everything is about the process! Process is the part that gives you this incredible reward, the start of the creative journey.”

Park Hyatt Shanghai

“Sharing the process and thoughts with the team really defines collectiveness and togetherness to achieve the unknown. And I say the unknown, because if you want to have the ‘known’, then why bother to do it? The beauty of the process is when you do this collectively and you explore the unknown, you have an idea of where you’re going but you don’t know what the end result will be. But you do know it will be amazing and exciting.”

Rosewood London

“Some designers will take on any job and they’ll design it and photograph it, and then they’ll say ‘the job is done’. And they move on to the next project. I find that disappointing. I’m more interested to see what the project will become, realizing its potential. I don’t think of my projects as being finished the moment I hand over the keys. In fact, the project only truly begins when the project is completed. It is a new life in the making. The hotel operators are starting that life and are allowing it to grow. We have built the body and the hotel operators are now forming the soul.”

]]>https://kohler.design/tony-chi-im-a-business-designer/feed/0Steve Leung – 100% Hong Kong born, raised and designed!https://kohler.design/steve-leung-100-hong-kong-born-raised-and-designed/
https://kohler.design/steve-leung-100-hong-kong-born-raised-and-designed/#commentsWed, 21 Jun 2017 07:34:20 +0000http://kohler.design/?p=6156Steve Leung was born in 1957 in Kowloon City. He knew from an early age that he wanted to be an architect, designer and entrepreneur. After his studies at the Hong Kong University and a [Read more…]

Steve Leung was born in 1957 in Kowloon City. He knew from an early age that he wanted to be an architect, designer and entrepreneur. After his studies at the Hong Kong University and a few years of work experience at Wong & Ouyang and the Buildings Department in Hong Kong he started his own architectural and urban planning consultancy with a partner in 1987.His personal life is closely linked to the success of his firm where he instills his philosophy of “Enjoy Life – Enjoy Design” on anything that he touches. His designs favor and emphasize contemporary design and minimalism, peppered with Asian culture and arts. The aim of his work is to improve lifestyles and share the art of living and portray a harmonic balance between East and West. The designs often stay within the ranges of black, white and grey, however, they are rather exciting than monotonous.
With this first consultancy, Steve soon realized that providing only architectural services would limit the growth of the firm, so he built an interior design practice in parallel.The advantage of interior design projects was that the projects are shorter than in architecture and it was easier to build a reputation much faster. Coupled with the philosophy “Enjoy Life – Enjoy Design” the practice quickly thrived and expanded. It led to many projects in architectural, interior and also product design.
In 1997 Steve split the practice into Steve Leung Architects Ltd (SLA) and Steve Leung Designers Ltd. (SLD). His first project for SLD was a show flat in mainland China with a strong focus on the natural environment. The simplicity and natural style attracted a lot of attention in the market. At the same time, Steve observed that China had a huge market potential. He saw many international firms venture into the space, but ultimately he had a great advantage. China is his home turf. He is 100% at home in this environment.
Business in China and internationally soared. The firm grew quickly and in 2014, Steve further segmented the firm into Steve Leung Hospitality (SLH) and Steve Leung Exchange (SLX). The latter is a consultancy for the collaboration of developers and international designers working on projects in China.
Over the years Steve became one of world’s leading architects and designers. He has been awarded the Andrew Martin International Interior Design Awards – something like the Oscars of Design – 13 times. He has received the Best Interior Designer Worldwide Award and The Pinnacle Award for Lifetime Achievement at A&D Trophy Awards 2016. Steve was listed at The 30 Most Influential Designers by FORBES China. He is one of Hong Kong’s Top Ten designers and known as “the king of simplicity”.
Steve has been a juror of several important interior design awards including the Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards 2009, iF Design Award China 2010, Red Dot Award: product design 2012 and iF Communication Design Award 2014.His accolades don’t stop there. In 2013, Steve has been appointed as Executive Director of the Design Committee at China National Interior Decoration Association (CIDA) and he is on the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Design Centre.
Steve Leung’s style of simplicity and minimalism sparked a lot of interest in the interior design industry and led him to be a leading figure in the community. He joined interior designers in 2014 from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to found C Foundation for the education and development within the industry.Currently he serves as president of the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designer (IFI) until 2019 and he has been an adjunct professor at HKU SPACE. In 2016 Steve was awarded the VGTC Honorary Fellowship for his contributions to Hong Kong vocational and professional education and training.
The company has been credited with over 120 design and corporate awards in Asia Pacific region and worldwide, such as IIDA Annual Interior Design Competition, Commercial Interior Design Awards, Gold Key Awards, Hospitality Awards, Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards and HKDA Global Design Awards.The firm is headquartered in Hong Kong with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu and comprises today over 400 highly skilled staff. It is one of the biggest interior design consultancies in Asia and ranks 30th in the recent 40th Interior Design Top 100 Giants Firms ranking.
The company focuses on architectural and interior design projects in China and the international market. Among the more than 1,000 design and architectural projects that Steve led are office buildings, high-rise and low-rise residential buildings, institutions anything from show flats to restaurants bar, hotels, shopping malls etc. Even an art booth at the Art Basel Hong Kong for Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery presenting ink paintings on Japanese gold foil screen.To name a few iconic projects in China and overseas: One Park Shanghai, Harbor Pinnacle Hong Kong, 39 Conduit Road in Hong Kong, Sing Yin at W Hong Kong, London Shangri-La Hotel at Shard and Yuan, Chinese restaurant, at Atlantis the Palm Dubai, and Don Don Tei, a Japansese tempura restaurant with a mix of tradition and contemporary minimalist design elements, furniture and lighting.
In all of this fame, Steve never lost sight of his other passions. One of which is food: he is a connoisseur of Hong Kong and Cantonese favorites such as cart noodles, sweet and sour pork and more. He is also crazy about seafood that he likes to eat on Lamma, an outlying island of Hong Kong. Based on this passion for the culinary and design, in 2007, Steve founded the lifestyle brand 1957 & Co with two friends Paul Kwok and Tino Kwan. The firm focuses on design and management of restaurants, serviced apartments and boutique hotels. 1957 & Co. now comprises 11 restaurants, 6 brands such as Sushi Ta-Ke, Mango Tree, An Nam, Gonpachi, and Modern Shanghai.
In 2013 another opportunity came along to join Yoo’s project “Steve Leung & Yoo” as Creative Director. Yoo is a design company founded by property entrepreneur John Hitchcox and star designer Philippe Starck.
Not that Steve would not be busy enough, he enjoys life, talking, shopping, eating travelling and draws inspiration from that. This leads to collaboration invitations from international brands such as us, Hunter Douglas, Former, Saga Furs, NEURA, Graham and Brown, Visionnaire, Villeroy & Boch, Theodore Alexander. Together he creates projects that make an impact in the design community.
In 2017 Steve Leung Designers Ltd. celebrates 20 years of skyrocketing success. Steve just presented a book “60 30 20” highlighting the signature projects for their anniversary. The future also looks very as the firm is planning to expand into medical, wellness and educations sectors.